Ciena® Corporation (NYSE: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that the Japan-U.S. Cable Network successfully completed a 200G trial over a segment of its network on the U.S. West Coast, highlighting the flexibility and scalability of Ciena’s submarine solution and confirming the viability of 16QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) 200G submarine deployments using Ciena’s WaveLogic coherent optical technology. The trial demonstrates how 16QAM technology can be leveraged to double the number of bits per wavelength to support twice the amount of data compared to standard 100G technology.

Key Facts:

  • The Japan-U.S. Cable Network is made up of 35 consortium members, including leading global service providers such as CenturyLink, KDDI, NTT Communications, SoftBank Telecom and Verizon.
  • The trial established a 200G capacity link using 16QAM modulation over Ciena’s 6500 Packet Optical platform, equipped with WaveLogic coherent optical processors.
  • Giving Japan-U.S. Cable sustainable options to meet increasing customer demands, this technology drives cost savings associated with extending the life of cable infrastructure as well as the financial benefits of an attractive cost-per-bit of higher-capacity 200G transmission.
  • The trial was successfully conducted earlier this year on a 630 km submarine segment in California, and builds on the successful deployment in 2013 of Ciena’s 100G submarine solutions across the Japan-U.S. Cable Network.

Executive Comments:

  • “The Japan-U.S. Cable Network is a critical source of capacity for our consortium members. The goal of this trial was to ensure that the cable’s various segments can be equipped with appropriate future-proof technologies to scale network capacity in a cost-effective manner, as needed to meet rapidly increasing demand for bandwidth. This collaboration with Ciena is helping the network prepare for cost-effective growth.”

­   Masahiro Soma, Japan-US CN management committee chairman / upgrade procurement group co-chairman

  • “Thanks to a combination of high-performing coherent optics and compelling economics, Ciena’s submarine solutions are well-suited to address the global push for higher-capacity submarine links – well beyond 100G. With our WaveLogic technology powering several complex submarine cable systems across some of the world’s most challenging geographies, a successful trial of this nature with Japan-U.S. Cable proves that we are ready to take these networks to the next level.”

­   Ed McCormack, vice president and general manager of Submarine Systems at Ciena

Technology Background:

  • Ciena's      WaveLogic coherent optical processors maximize reach, capacity,      flexibility, and reliability of submarine networks with an operational      focus on ease-of-deployment and cost efficiency. Ciena’s converged packet      optical platforms with WaveLogic coherent optical technology give service      providers significant bandwidth scalability, reliability and programmability      – all key building blocks of an OPn network      architecture.
  • Ciena      is the pioneer and market leader of coherent optical technology with 35,000      coherent 40G/100G line interfaces shipped to over 150 customers across the      globe, with more than 35 million coherent kilometers deployed.

Supporting Resources:

About Ciena
Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is the network specialist. We collaborate with customers worldwide to unlock the strategic potential of their networks and fundamentally change the way they perform and compete. Ciena leverages its deep expertise in packet and optical networking and distributed software automation to deliver solutions in alignment with its OPn architecture for next-generation networks. We enable a high-scale, programmable infrastructure that can be controlled and adapted by network-level applications, and provide open interfaces to coordinate computing, storage and network resources in a unified, virtualized environment. For updates on Ciena news, follow us on Twitter @Ciena or on LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/company/ciena. Investors are encouraged to review the Investors section of our website at www.ciena.com/investors, where we routinely post press releases, SEC filings, recent news, financial results, and other announcements. From time to time we exclusively post material information to this website along with other disclosure channels that we use.

Note to Ciena Investors
Forward-looking statements. This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof; and Ciena's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties associated with its business, which include the risk factors in its Report on Form 10-Q, which Ciena filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 7, 2014. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Ciena's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future and can be identified by forward-looking words such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "should," "will," and "would" or similar words. Ciena assumes no obligation to update the information included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.